Union with God in the Mirror of the Literary and Thought Structures of the Gospel according to John

Abstract

The literary approach used in the Gospel according to John expresses a unique way of thinking which also expresses or grasps the deep essence of Christian spiritual life. The present essay describes some typical shapes of Johannine literary expression as they are related to what may be called "union with God" in the sense of "mutual immanence" (Dodd). The examined textual structures, such as chiasm, concentric scheme, or "I am" sentences, reflect not only Christ's divine being and his descent/ascent, but also-and most importantly - the disciple's participation in such realties. The main contribution offered in the paper is, however, an exploration of the form of "double comparison" (e.g. "as I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me", 6:57) in the context of the "spiral" pattern of Johannine speeches - and a further application of this depicted union to the topic of communitarian agape.